Matt Miller, 30

Matthew Howard Miller of Pinetown, N.C., a former resident of Springs who had been a member of its Fire Department and also a house man for the Amagansett Fire Department, died on April 10 following a car crash in Pantego, N.C. He was 30 years old.
Mr. Miller moved to North Carolina in 1990 when he was 9. After graduating from high school, he returned to Springs, where he began work for the fire department.
In 2004, he worked for Capt. Dave Aripotch as a deckhand aboard the Cory and Leigh, a 70-foot-long Montauk trawler. In 2006, he returned to North Carolina and bought a commercial fishing boat and began a crabbing and oystering operation.
Last year, he began work as an able-bodied seaman for the North Carolina Department of Transportation on the Governor Russell, a Pamlico River ferry. When on on the river, he worked at Georgie's Sports and Oyster Bar in Bellhaven, N.C.
He was born in Southampton on July 2, 1981, the son of Kenneth Everett Miller and the former Ruth Ann Brown, who now also live in North Carolina. His family said “saltwater was always in his veins,” an Accabonac Miller tradition.
On the South Fork, Mr. Miller had also been briefly employed at the Ocean Dunes in Amagansett and worked on the side in landscaping with Jeff Ryan and Henry Meyer. He was described as having a contagious smile and witty personality, a man whose “passion was fishing and friends.” He enjoyed golf, softball, and working out and was a New York Yankees and Giants fan.
An artificial reef is being constructed in the Pamlico River in Mr. Miller’s name. Memorial donations were suggested for it and can be sent to the Matt Miller Eternal Reef Memorial Fund, First South Bank, 113 Carolina Avenue, Washington, N.C. 27889.
In addition to his parents, Mr. Miller is survived by his grandparents, Howard and Virginia Brown of Springs, by a brother, Kenneth E. Miller of Dayton, Tex., and by a sister, Meredith Newell of East Flat Rock, N.C.